Origin stories and reboots: Two well-worn tastes that taste great together? That seems to be the math for the tentatively titled King Kong, which is in development at Disney+. The live-action series from Paper Girls creator Stephany Folsom is, according to Deadline, “a serialized action-adventure drama that brings the classic monster story into the modern age, with a return to Skull Island and the dawn of a new Kong.”
But don’t get it confused with Netflix’s Skull Island anime, and don’t get your hopes up about a connection to the Monsterverse; Variety points out that this project is totally unrelated to the Godzilla show in the works at Apple TV+. (The rights are complicated; the Monsterverse only calls him Kong, as in Godzilla vs. Kong, pictured above.)
The new series “will explore the mythology of King Kong’s origin story and the supernatural mysteries of his home,” Deadline says, and is based on both the original King Kong, written by Merian C. Cooper, and new novels by Joe DeVito, who has worked with Cooper’s estate to create new work that serves as source material for the series. Atomic Monster, the production company of director/producer James Wan, is on board this adaptation as well.
The giant ape will come to Disney+ at some point in the future, but it’ll probably be a while.
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